Starting this spring, Boulder residents will have to find a new place to get their fill of Marxist literature and "Kill Your Television" bumper stickers.

Left Hand Book Collective, a volunteer-run and explicitly socialist Pearl Street staple, announced it will shut down April 15 after 34 years of business. The closure is another blow to the city's already-dwindling list of bookstores.

The underground store at 1200 Pearl St. has long been a source for progressive literature, periodicals and films. It also hosts monthly meetings of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Despite a devoted leftist customer base, which has often included University of Colorado professors, Left Hand was forced to surrender to the convenience of the Internet vendors and the proliferation of e-readers.

"It's a very sad time," said Louise Knapp, 66, who was one of Left Hand's first volunteers. "There aren't many voices out there that really speak to the kinds of concerns that we have and the kind of literature we offer. It's sad that we're unable to sustain that. The world of books is just changing."

The industry is indeed in crisis mode, as large chains and independent booksellers alike are watching profits fall every year. Boulder bookstores have closed their doors in recent years, including High Crimes, Troubadour and Happenstance. Eads News & Smoke Shop shut down earlier this year after more than a century in Boulder.

Barnes & Noble, long a scapegoat for the demise of independent booksellers, announced this week plans to close about 20 stores a year over the next decade.

"Bookstores are closing all over, and this is a marginal bookstore in the first place," said Gene Rodriguez, 79, a Left Hand volunteer since 1991. "So we don't have a lot of leeway."

"I think it's stores like these that add soul to a town," the 33-year-old said. "If it's nothing but Bed Bath & Beyond, then we're all going to be dressing the same and thinking the same. (Boulder) needs that diversity."

Knapp, who in 2008 had to shut down the 10th Street location of feminist bookstore Word is Out, said the city has drifted from the "out-of-the-mainstream" ideals with which many people identify it. The looming end of Left Hand, she said, is symbolic of that phenomenon.

"Left Hand has stood as a statement of ... the kind of progressive thinking that Boulder is known for," Knapp said, adding that the city "has probably strayed away from its roots of being a town full of alternative and interesting people."

A lack of young volunteers willing to make long-term commitments to running the store contributed largely to the decision to close Left Hand, which now relies on just six main staffers.

The store has also lost most of the business it once got from CU. For years, Left Hand relied on textbook sales for much of its revenue, but Rodriguez said that has changed dramatically.

"The university has put a lot of pressure on professors to order books only through the CU Book Store," he said. "They resented the fact that we were selling (textbooks). They had spies coming down to see which professors were ordering books through us."

Beginning Friday, Left Hand will have a storewide sale. Its devotees will convene in the coming weeks to determine how to allocate leftover funds and where to send unsold inventory, which stores like Red Letter and Boulder Book Store are primed to inherit.

Though many of the shop's books will find new homes on the shelves of other stores, its lively, liberal environment seems virtually irreplaceable.

"Left Hand has really been a beacon of progressive thought in Boulder for over 30 years," Knapp said. "It's just very sad to know that now it's not really sustainable."

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